My Mumbling Thoughts

Ah, home sweet home. Yes, indeed, we have made it safely to and from North Carolina, which was an unknown much needed little trip for me. There was a whole lot of nothing that was accomplished and I'm feeling...well, I'm feeling exhausted since six hours in a car with two family members, listening to my iPod non-stop and falling in and out of sleep can really tucker you out. At the moment I'm letting all of my electronic things charge up and letting my brain rest from too much exposure to light. So much light.

We left on Saturday which is when I re-discovered my southern accent (hey y'all!), remembered how much I love hush puppies and drank four bottles of Cheerwine. You haven't lived until you've drank some of that sugary syrup. Unfortunately they don't sell it up here in Virginia (something about small children exploding after one sip) so I had to stock up before we left. You can bet your ass that some of it is coming to London with me too. I just have to figure out how to hide it in my suitcases.

For some reason I had it all planned in my mind that we were going down to North Carolina to do something. Certainly there was a reason for us to be road tripping it all the way down there other than to see Janice and eat. Not that I ever really need a reason to go down south, and I love seeing Janice, but I was expecting at least some kind of small itinerary.

Nah. The only thing that Momma had planned was to see Janice and eat, which is fine for the first two days, but after that, I needed something to do. Anything. I got really bored really quickly and then remembered that Gastonia is in some kind of freakish time warp that has been locked and refuses to budge whatsoever.

I didn't have anyone to see, I didn't have anywhere to go, I didn't have anything to do. I wanted to scream.

Monday afternoon was nice though because that's when Mel and I saw our cousin, Ashley, that we haven't seen in almost ten years. Hell, it might be longer than ten years.

Anyway, we met up with her and took a hilarious walk down Memory Lane.

Me: "Oh, do you remember when we were in David's room and found his porn?"

Ashley: "Yeah, I was going to mention that out there, but I didn't want to in front of your momma. I remember she was really pissed about that."

Mel: "What about when your momma was cleaning out her room and y'all two were fighting over that Joe Camel shirt?"

Ashley: "What Joe Camel shirt?"

Mel: "You know the one with the little pocket on the side to hold your cigarettes? And your momma gave me that purple bathing suit that I never wore?"

Me: "I still have that Camel shirt."

Ashley "Hell, I'd probably never wear one of Momma's bathing suits either."

Me: "Oh, but you did when that dude, Billy, was over at your house one day and you wanted to show off in front of him. And David was so pissed because he hated it whenever we'd be around him and his friends."

Mel: "Yeah, and you were standing on top of the well struting and dancing in front of them both."

Me: "And when David came over to you to try and get you down you spit on him."

Ashley *laughing*: "Oh my god, I completely forgot about that."

The following day we made plans to go out to lunch at the Olive Garden since Ashley loved it there so much and hang out a little bit more before it was time to go. It was nice to get out with her and catch up on things. We all had certainly grown up and changed quite a bit, but even as I looked at Ashley and Mel, I could see that we were all still those crazy, young kids who were always getting in trouble and causing chaos.

We also briefly saw our other cousin, Danny, who stopped by Janice's house the last night we were there and we talked to him about his business and how well things are going even if he is busy up to his eyeballs.

Mostly though, our time was spent eating and laying around like the lazy schlubs we are. I saw three people that I used to go to high school with, which was...frightening. I was bitten at least twenty thousand times by mosquitoes and Janice has collected six new cats. Well, I should say five and a half considering that one of them is on the verge of collapsing and dying at any moment. I was sure that it would die while we were there, but alas, the little bugger struggled on and is still ticking. I told Janice to give me a call the second he drops dead. Mel and I have a pool going and need to know. She said we were awful. I told her that's what happens when you have nothing to do in the south.

Aside from the trees being a little taller and the people being a little older, it appears that not much has changed in the small town that I grew up in. It was good to go down and visit, but I'm glad to be back at home where I can properly catch up on all of my blogs and get started on the many, many things that I must do before the 13th. There's nothing but days in front of me now. Nothing but a couple more days.